The significant price Difference that existed thirty years ago Between the BMW 325i convertible and the maserati biturbo spyder has almost evaporated. This Doessn’t Make Chosing Between These Two Appealing, Open Six-Cylinder Speedsters Any Easier. Let’s Let the Heart Speak, or Will Reason Prevail?
Almost Forty Years … Are Two Protagonists Really That Old? Those Who Saw These BMW and Maserati Models Appear in Car Magazines As Brand New Models May Now Scratch Their Heads in Bewildment. YES, They Both Date from 1986. The High Age is particularly Difficult to Grasp From the BMW, which is the E30 Coded Model Series is Still Reasonly represented in the National Car Fleet. Even as a convertible, it Doesn’tn’t stand out too much. The Situation is Different for the Maserati Biturbo, which is a born classic simply because of its illustrious brand name. The Highly Evocative Model Name Biturbo Should Send Shivers Down The Spines of Entire Tribes, Were It Not For The Fact That The Car Suffers From The Image Of Quality Problems. Illustrative was The Heavy Garbage Container That Top Gear Dropped on Such A Car From a Great Height, with the Dry Comment That The Biturbo was Simply A Disaster. Neverbertheless, the images quickly disappear into the background when we come face to face such a beautiful biturbo for this story. A spyder for a moment, which in the humble opinion of the editors is even more beautiful than the coupé on which it is based. Meanwhile, The BMW 325i is also present and our topless party can begin.
The Maserati and the BMW Have a Similar Technical Layout: A 2.5-liter Six-Cylinder Engine at the Front, Followed by A Manual Five-Speed Gearbox and Rear-Wheel Drive. And Yet Everything is different. BMW HAS An Inline Engine With Injection, The Maserati A V6 (Ninety Degree Block Angle), A Carburetor and Two Small TurboS. The Italians Wanted to Counter The Dreaded Period of Breathlessness from Large Turbo – The Turbo Lag – And Therefore Opted For Two Small Turbines, which Hang On Either Side Under The Cylinder Heads of the V6. It is remarkable that the intake air is compressed from there and still has to travel the long way to the carburetor that sits on top of the v6. The Gas Factory Must Therefore See To Create A Combustible Gasoline-Air Mixture From The Glowing Hot Intake Air Storming Towards It At High Speed. Often The Situation is Reversed and the Compression Takes Place After the Carburation. Anyway, the result is impressive: 192 HP at 5,500 rpm and no less than 300 nm at 3,000 rpm.
Inline-Six Delivers Much Less Torque, because it is turbo-free
BMW had Just Said Goodbye to the Turbo in the mid-1980s; The 2002 was Considered A Wild Experiment and the 745i would be Succeded by the Turbo-Less, Twelve-Cylinder 750i. In Munich, they preferred to use the turbo experience for their new diesel adventure, which is with the 524TD. So there are no turbo or other antics to be seen on the engine of the bmw 325i; This is Simply the Much-Loved Six-Cylinder Inline Engine with Injection. The 325i Delivers The Hant Power of 170 HP at 5,800 RPM; The Torque Peaks at 4,000 RPM at 226 Nm. And that is a prospective less than with maserati anyway.
Biturbo Takes Off
While the bmw delivers performance with which no one will feel short-changed, you can, so to speak, drive circles around the 325i with the maserati. We Didn’t Take Any Measurements, But Just Stepping On The Gas Was Enough to Notice The Big Difference Between The Two Cars. The Biturbo Defends Italian Honor With Verve: It Really Takes Off, So The Conclusion is Justified That The Expendive Solution with the Two Small TurboS Pays Off Twice About With Every Acceleration Sprint. The BMW is also a very fast boy, but in A Direct Comparison It Comes Off The Starting Blocks a Lot Slower. You initially because Larger Cylinders for the Bavarian, because they can push on the crankshaft with equally firmer Strokes. However, Salvation is near: You only have to shift through the Gears to Unleash the Sporty Nature of the BMW. With a brilliant Roar, in which we recognize the mighty howl of the austin-healey in the distance, the bmw gives free rein to all its newton meters. The Rear of the Car Dives Even Further Towards The Asphalt, And The Acceleration Becomes Increasingly Fierce. Fantastic.
BMW 325i is Much Esier to Operate
Duration a sporty ride about a winding course, where the driver has to steer, shift and brake a lot, the bmw can stay perfectly in the wake of the maserati. Reason: The Much Greater Ease of Operation of the 325i. Everything that Goes with Ease in that car is a matter of hard and eSpeciate accurate work in the spyder. Take the steering, which is really queen heavy in the unassisted biturbo, just at speed, and also not too much accurate. In The BMW, which in our case does have power steering, steering is a real pleasure. Pleasantly Direct, Sufficiently Heavy and With a Lot Of Feedback from the Front Wheels. If you come across a very tight corner, there is a chance that you will not get through it in one go in the biturbo; The Turning Circle of the Car is immense! Or take the shifting, which requires more concentration with the maserati than you would like. Not so much because of the sports scheme, with 1st bottom left and the rest in the H-pattern, but mainly because it has to be done very precisely. The Chess Game is also heavy and slow, in a way that would be justified with an even more exotic and older brand peer, a ghibli for example. But Frankly Not in a Compact Car Like the Spyder. In the BMW you casually throw the liver of the five-speed gearbox (with traditional shift pattern) into the next gear. You Feel Very Well What Is Happening In The Gearbox In Your Palm, But Shifting Itelf Does Not Cost The Slightest Effort. Very nice. Be careful with the reverse gear, which resides next to 1st gear.
There is Another Factor That Makes Driving the Tested Maserati Much More Strenuous Than With The Bmw And That Is The Exhaust Noise; With An Open Convertible Top, This Easily Drowns Out The Music of the Engine. Too bad, we would have liked to hear the turbo’s whistling! The Roar of the Spyder is very entertaining along the way; You see How Bystanders Turn Around and Look For The Noisemaker, Who They There Can’t Find. It was a diablo or miura that you were unconsciously looking for, dear people, but the small, silver roadster that had already disappeared from your sight …
Apart from the loud noise, the driver and passenger experience the maserati biturbo spyder as an oasis of luxury and wealth. As Cautious and Conservative as the Exterior is designed, so voluper and lustful is the interior. Not only by the rich use of beautiful, supple leather – which is so thickly pleated that ‘taut’ could cover half a spyder – but also by the subtle use of wood wraps around the occupants as a continuous decorative comic. Of course, the Famous Clock is present, which is somewhat unhappily flanked by two air vents that, in all their plastic sobriety, rather clash with the rest of the interior. The Instrumentation is Richly Set Up With Seven Meters; It’s a pity that you can only see the middle three. The Seats Are Good, Although There Are Few Special Adjustment Options. A Special Feature In 1986 was The Standard Air Conditioning. For the really hot days, when the hood is Better Left closed. About that hood: opening and closing must be done by hand. In itsself a piece of cake, were it not that the cover has to be stretched over the rear deck with a lot of force.
Electric Top Optional
In The BMW, The Hood is also Manually Operated (Electric was Optional) and you would be because it any other way: Unclip Two Levers at the Front Window (Just like with the biturbo Spyder), Push the Whole Shaller, Lift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Wift the Watch and Let The Whaler Window and Let The Whaler Window and Let The Whaler, Lift the Window and Let The Wholow, Lift the Window and Let, Lift The Warewards, Let The War Window and Let, Lift The War Window and Let, Lift The Rull and Let The War Window and Let, Lift The War Theater and Lift The War Theater and Lift The Rull. Into the Freed Space. Close the Valve Again, a child can do the laundry. As far as the interior is group, The BMW is no different from the closed 325i. That Means Little Frills and Lots of Ingenuity, Intended for a Different Group of Motorists Than The Maserati. The somewhat more engaged helmsmen, so to speak, for whom efficiency and clarity are the most important. The fact that something like this also results in a beautiful and dynamic whole inside is a nice bonus. The Seating Position is Excellent, The Seat is Perfect and Very Extensively Adjustable. A car to merge with as a driver.
It speaks for both cars are the tops are beautifully concealed flat in the bodywork in the folded position. This allows us to admire the cars in their full, open glory, after which it turns out that most points in this regard go to Italy. Designer and Builder Zagato Shortened the Wheelbase of the Biturbo by Eleven centimeters, making the spyder not only more resistant to torsion but also even more attractive to look at. From its handsome snout with the four straight headlights, through the wedge-shaped flanks to the resolute, unfortunately somewhat anonymous rear. It is as special here that the spyder rifembles the bmw; The Taillights Are Almost Identical! The BMW is also beautiful in line: Longer, Smarter and More Elegant Than The Maserati. A Timeless Beauty with Now Classic Features.
After a day of Driving, Looking, Photographing and Filming, We take stock: Why of these two cars we prefer to spend the € 20,000 that they currently cost? The Maserati Appeals to the Heart, and Beckons with Its Beautiful Interior and Exterior, Stunning Performance, Exclusiveness and Exotic Origin. However, The Head Shakes No, Because of the Questionable Reputation of the Italian when it comes to reliability, no matter how Perfect The Tested Specimen Presents itself. The Sober BMW then? Yes, because we had counted on how strongly the bavarian would not only only the head, but also the heart – even if only from 4,000 rpm. The BMW Brings Both Into Harmony As The Only One. It is the convincing winner of this confrontation.
